The country’s job market ain’t so bad. But Boise’s job market is great.
According to Bizjournals, the online media division of American City Business Journals, which analyzed employment trends in the nation’s 100 largest labor markets, Boise is ranked the third hottest job market.
Despite the Micron layoffs that plagued the city several months ago, the City of Trees’ high-tech sector was noted as a sharp field.

Boise Ranks Third as Hottest Job Market

The country’s job market ain’t so bad. But Boise’s job market is great.

According to Bizjournals, the online media division of American City Business Journals, which analyzed employment trends in the nation’s 100 largest labor markets, Boise is ranked the third hottest job market.

Despite the Micron layoffs that plagued the city several months ago, the City of Trees’ high-tech sector was noted as a sharp field.

As for other cities topping the list, there appears to be a Western stronghold in the hot job market with Phoenix ranking top and Salt Lake City coming in second. Boise, which also has the lowest unemployment rate among the 100 markets in the study at 2.1 percent, had 240,000 private-sector jobs as of mid-2007 and had added 7,500 jobs since mid-2006 – a one-year growth rate of 3.2 percent.

To get the ranking, Bizjournals analyzed private-sector employment patterns in America’s major metropolitan areas from data complied since 2002 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The intention of the study was to determine “the relative strength of the nation’s 100 largest labor markets, based on short- and long-term employment trends.”

All of the information is from the private sector, not government jobs, and was based on nine categories: five-year job growth by percentage, four-year job growth by percentage, three-year job growth by percentage, two-year job growth by percentage, one-year job growth by percentage, five-year job growth by raw total, one-year job growth by raw total, unemployment rate and one-year change in unemployment rate.

According to the Bizjournals article on the findings, about two-thirds of the nation’s 116.9 million private-sector jobs as of June 2007 were included in the 100 markets.

Detroit ranked at the bottom as the coldest job market in America.

Check out the whole list and read the entire story about the study at Bizjournals.

2 comments

Doesn’t sound like this analysis was based on anything other than job numbers. Any data on wages and benefits? How about all the houses on the market as a measure of economic health? HOw many of the numerous “jobs” offer health care and other benefits? You know the old joke “I moved to Idaho for the jobs, and now I can’t afford to leave.”

Looks to me like wages have dropped in Boise, with many jobs advertised at minimum or near minimum wages. I’d like to know how the folks from Micron etc. are making up the difference in their paychecks.

We need policy that encourages sustainable economics, the Western model of boom and bust is exhausting.